Rope climbing is an effective form of exercise because it maintains the climber's arm and back muscles under dynamic tension. In other words, the climber's muscles are subjected to a pulling force resulting from part or all of the climber's weight as he supports himself on the rope, whether or not he is moving up or down on the rope. Superimposed on that force is an acceleration component that manifests itself when the climber pulls himself up or lowers himself down on the rope. Placing one's body under dynamic tension of this type improves one's muscle tone, blood circulation, respiration, and general mental and physical fitness.
Rope climbing may be practiced as an exercise in and of itself or as part of training for mountain or rock climbing.
There have been some efforts to make exercise machines that simulate the act of climbing a rope. Usually these machines require the user to pull down on a rope hand-over-hand, with the rope passing through some kind of friction or drag mechanism that offers resistance to the pulling motion. One example of such exercise apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,570. The trouble with this type of apparatus is that it really does not simulate accurately the act of rope climbing, which as noted previously, subjects the arms to dynamic tension whether or not the climber is moving up or down on the rope. In existing rope climbing exercise machines, no attempt is made to simulate the effect of the user's weight. In other words, no opposing force is exerted on the rope unless the user is actually accelerating the rope. Therefore, the user's muscles are not maintained under more or less constant tension as he pulls down on the rope, hand over hand. Rather, the force exerted on each arm varies from some maximum value at the top of each pulling motion to near zero at the bottom of the stroke. Such variable or intermittent tensioning of the body muscles is not as effective as constant dynamic tension in conditioning the body.
Another limitation to the existing prior art is the lack of an assisting upward force to assist the user during use. This upward force, as provided in this apparatus, allows users of all fitness levels to use, and obtain the conditioning benefits of, the apparatus. The upward force applied to the seat or platform, in conjunction with the governor and braking systems, gives the user the feeling and impression that they are genuinely climbing up a rope.
Also, prior exercise machines of this general type have tended to be fairly large and complicated pieces of machinery that take up a large amount of floor space and are relatively expensive to make.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an assisted rope climbing exercise machine that is safe and that permits natural body movement during the exercise.
A further object of the invention is to provide a rope climbing exercise apparatus that is adjustable to accommodate users whose strengths vary over a relatively wide range.
Another object of the invention is to provide an exercise apparatus of this general type that is relatively compact and that requires a relatively small amount of floor space.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a rope climbing exercise apparatus that is composed of relatively few components that are easy and inexpensive to fabricate.
Other objects will, in part, be obvious and will, in part, appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts that will be exemplified in the following detailed description, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.